She was
born of Russian nobility and later became the secretary of the Theosophical Society.
Also, she was referred to as HPB. She did much to spread Eastern
religious,
philosophical and occult concepts throughout the Western world.

Her father Peter von Hahn was in the Russian army. Shortly after he
married
Helena Andreyevna he was called into war and his wife returned to her
parent'
home when their daughter Helena was born. Helena Andreyevna wrote novels
concerning restricted Russian women and was called the George Sand of
Russia.

She died when Helena was twelve, but later Helena would say that her
mother
had died when she was a baby. The question is why did Helena Blavatsky
deny
the existence of her mother in her childhood. It is true that she grew
from
a sickly baby into a problem child subjected to hysteria and convulsions.
When dying her mother observed sadly, "Ah well, perhaps it is best
that I am dying, so at least I shall be spared seeing what befalls Helena.
Of one thing I am certain, her life will not be that of other women, and
she will have much to suffer."

This statement that her mother died when she was a baby seems to suggest
that there was strife between the mother and daughter. It indicates a
conflict
between the wills. That Helen resented her mother's long absences, her
intimate
friendships in the bohemian world of letters, and felt it as a desertion
of the home and herself. Her mother seemed to have hurt her pride.

Helena's childhood was not the usual one. She displayed neurotic behavior
from almost infancy by walking and talking in her sleep at four,
exhibiting
morbid tendencies, and loving the weird and fantastic. One of her earliest
recollections was macabre in nature. At Ekaterinoslav, the countryside was
said to be haunted with russalkas, green-haired nymphs living in
willow trees along the river banks. Whenever her nurses crossed her Helena
threaten to have the russalkas tickle them to death. One
day
when Helena was fourshe was walking by the river bank with one of
her nurses while a serf-boy of fourteen followed them and annoyed Helena
by pulling her perambutor. She them imitated one of her father's roars
threatening
to have the russalkas tickle the boy to death. The boy being
scarred,
took to his heels over the river bank. He was not seen again until
fishermen
discovered his dead body weeks later. Helena's family supposed he had
accidentally
stepped into a sand-pit whirlpool. But, the household surfs knew
otherwise;
they knew that the four-year-old girl had withdrawn her protection from
the boy and delivered him over to the russalkas. It is significant
that HPB should later accuse herself of homicide at the age of four, and
the victim a boy ten years her senior.

Her memory of this incident is not surprising when view in perspective
with
other incidents of her childhood. Those who took care of her, besides her
parents, were serfs and women who had learned and believed in
superstitions.
At the time Old Russia was a hothouse for superstitions. It was alive with
tales of wolves, monsters, ghosts, leshes, brownies and goblins which were
thought to manipulate human lives.. Even though the educated people
accepted
Russian Orthodoxy, along with its icons filling every room, priests and
sacraments, their serfs still kept alive the Empire's pagan religion among
themselves. The nurses of Helena, or Lelinka as they affectionately called
her, believed these superstitions. Furthermore, Lelinka, being born in the
seventh month of the year, was called a sedmitchka, a word that is
difficult to translate but is connected with the number
seven.

According to legend it was believed that supernatural beings could be
placated
or even controlled by people like Helena. On the night of her birthday the
servants would carry the little girl around the house and stables while
sprinkling holy water and repeating magical incantations to appease the
domovoy, a goblin in the form of an old man who lived behind the
stove and played tricks whenever displeased. Some thought each household
had one. Supposedly such activities were not known by her mother or
grandparents.
If they did know about them, initially they refused to assign any
importance
to them until later.

It was not that the household servants thought that Helena was special,
she showed it. She threw temper tantrums whenever she did not get her way.
Finally, as she later recalled, the family members noticed her
abnormalities
and she was exorcised
many times, but the rituals proved to no avail. Even scolding and
punishments
failed to change her outrageous unacceptable behavior. She fail to change
as a child because, it seems, after the servant boy drown, plus the
attention
she was receiving, she felt she was powerful and invulnerable, and
increasingly
believed that mighty forces would carry out her wishes. A belief that
seemed
to permeate her life.

Her only happy childhood memories seem to be between six and twelve in her
father's army camps. She was petted and spoiled as the enfant du
regiment.
She tyrannized over her father's orderlies whom she preferred to her
female
nurses and governesses. While being pampered she managed to pickup a
smattering
of knowledge about shamans and magic which she put to good use later in
life.

After the death of their mother, at age 28, Helena with her sister and
brother
lived with their maternal grandparents. The grandmother, Helena Palovna
de Fadeev, was a princess of the Dolgorkurov family, and a famous
botanist.
So from her mother and grandmother HPB inherited her characteristics of
stubbornness, a fiery temper, and a disregard for social norms, all of
which
she amplified.

Helena's first love affair, at age 16, had been with Prince Alexander
Galistin,
cousin to the Viceroy of the Caucasus. At the time her grandfather served
as his Imperial Councilor. Her interest in the Prince was because of his
interest in occultism and magic. She later claimed the affair ended on the Prince's
death, but he jilted her.

When 17 she married General Nicephore Blavatsky. There are several stories
for this marriage, but it seems to be that a governess had scolded Helena
for her temper tantrums, saying she could not even get an old man to marry
her. To prove the governess wrong, and to divert attention from her
unhappy
affair with Prince Galistin she married Blavatsky, who she called old and
about seventy or eighty. Actually he was around forty when they married
and outlived her. After three unhappy months of a honeymoon, HPB managed
to escape from the General's bodyguards and return to her grandfather who
was not glad to see her. Her quickly shipped her off to her father, now
retired and living near St. Peterburg, in charge of a maid and three men
servants, all of whom she escaped. Her father traveled two thousand mile
for nothing to meet her in Odessa. Helena was aboard an English bark, some
say eloping with the skipper, sailing for Constantinople.

The years between 1848-1858 are known as Helena's vagabond years. The
actual
events are rather sketchy. The important thing to HPB, at least, was the
two years she was in Tibet studying with the Lama. In 1856, according to
her version, while in India she met a Lutheran minister who was with two
mystics. None had passports or proper identification. The mystics did not
enter Tibet, but the minister, although not permitted in the country, did
travel a good way with the party to a mud hut. Helena wore a mysterious
disguise supplied by a Tartar shaman. At a hut they met the Chief Lama who would not allow
them admittance until Helena showed him a carnelian talisman given to her as a child by a high priest of a Calmuck
tribe.

Within the hut, which was a great hall, they witnessed a reincarnation ceremony.
A four-month-old baby laid on a carpet in the center of the hall. "Under
the influence of the venerable lama, the baby rose to its feet and walked
up and down the strip of carpet, repeating, `I am Buddha, I am the old
Lama,
I am his spirit in a new body.'" The three men accompanying Helena
were terrified. The minister said his blood ran cold because the infant's
eyes "seemed to search his very soul."

Some believe that HPB fabricated the reincarnation story because similar
descriptions could be found in Abbe Huc's Recollection's of Travel in
Tartary, Tibet and China Further they reasoned, her reason for the
story
was for psychological importance, showing she had traveled in Tibet where
other men could not, and her talisman had admitted them to see the ritual;
however, it must be remembered these were her critics.

When returning to Russia Helena agreed to return to Nicephore Blavatsky
on the condition that she would be required to see him as little as
possible,
which she did. Also, at this time her grandfather Andrey Fadeyev was 71
and retiring from the Viceroy's Board of Caucasus. He usually retired
early
and Helena's two cousins, both unmarried, came to the Fadeyev home in
Taiflis
to entertain while seances were held. At the time the many of the Russian
intellectuals were beginning to be fascinated with the paranormal. Helena
made a big impression. Her cousin Sergei Witte wrote, "My cousin did
not confine the demonstrations of her power to table rapping, evocation
of spirits, and similar mediumistic hocus-pocus. On one occasion she
caused
a closed piano in an adjacent room to emit sounds as if invisible hands
were playing upon it. This was done in my presence, at the insistence of
one of the guests."

It seemed that the lady's activities included more than hold seances.
A young baron from Estonia, Nicholas Meyendorff who was an ardent
Spiritualist,
found HPB delightful. Meyendorff was a closed friend of D. D. Home, in
fact,
he considered Home as a brother, so he confided his affair with HPB to
Home.
He insisted she divorced Blavatsky and marry him, or so the lady later
claimed.

It seems Meyendorff later said Helena was unfaithful. From latter
correspondence,
in 1886, to her biographer it seems that Meyendorff was correct. About
this
time unexpectedly Agardi Metrovich appeared sometime in the early 1860's.
He was an opera singer accompanied by a female singer who it seems was his
wife. Metrovich had know Helena and her family previously. It seems he now
wanted her back. He was almost sixty in 1861, and had about begged an
engagement
from the Italian Opera of Tiflis was one of the worst in Europe. He was
on a decline in his career.

It is somewhat of a puzzle how Helena managed living with her husband,
lover
Meyendoroff, and Metrovich at the same time while holding seances in her
grandfather's home. But, the fact is that she became pregnant and a child
was born. The only existence of the child's birth date is on a passport
dated August 23 "(Old Style)" 1862. It designated him as an infant,
leaving speculation he was born in 1862, or late 1861. His name was Yuri,
and he was deformed. He was born in the settlement of Ozurgety which had
a military surgeon. Helena settled there buying a house to escape the
scandal
her pregnancy had caused in Tiflis. All men she knew denied fathering the
child, but Blavatsky continued her monthly allowance. Helena referred to
him as "the poor crippled child," while Meyendorff's relatives
said he had a hunchback. Whether the handicap resulted from a birth defect
or an accident cause by the military physician unaccustomed delivering
babies
is not known.

After the birth Helena suffered, or arranged, a nervous breakdown. The
significance
of which is that she describes a dual personality:

"When awake and myself, I remembered well who I was in
my second capacity, and what I had been and was doing. When someone
else,
i.e., the personage I became, I know I had no idea of who was H. P.
Blavatsky!
I was in another far-off country, a total different individuality from
myself,
and had no connection at all with my actual life."

Yuri was about five years when Helena took him Bologna trying to help him.
It is known that Metrovitch accompany them. But, the journey proved
fruitless
and the child died. They buried him in a small town in Southern Russia
under
Metrovitch's name; the latter saying that "he did not care."

Even though Helena had reason to detest Russia, she could not bury her son
on foreign soil. This among other things illustrated that she dearly loved
the child. It had been difficult for her to keep the child, and easier for
her to have abandoned him as an orphan, but this she did not do. She did
everything she could for him. Although later she denied he was her child.
When taking him to visit her father, she wrote that her father suspected
her of wrongful sexual conduct and she produced evidence from two doctors
that she was unable to bare children. Perhaps she did this more for Yuri's
sake than her own, because, it is thought, she could not bear for anyone
to think ill of her son. She also claimed Yuri was an illegitimate child
of Meyendorff and a friend of hers. The stories she told got so tangled
that her biographer. Alfred Sinnett, omitted Yuri altogether.

However, the child seems an important factor in her life; otherwise, why
would she have cared for him approximately five years? Her career in the
paranormal was of great concern to her. Factors concerning the child
outweighed
this. Yuri, ironically, resembled the little hunchback invisible which she
had played with in her own childhood. She, herself, described Yuri as "the
only being who made life worth living, a being whom I loved according to
the phraseology of Hamlet as `forty thousand fathers and brothers will
never
love their children and sisters.'" Later she wrote to Metrovitch, "'I
loved one man deeply but still more I love occult science,' but the one
she loved `more than anything else in all the world,' or anything, was
Yuri."

It was later after Yuri's death that Helena confided in writing to her
cousin
Nadyezha Fadeyev of her rejection of Christianity, "the Russian Orthodox
god had died for her on the day of Yuri's death." Although, she had
never been at peace with Christianity, "there were moments when I believed
deeply that sins can be remitted by the Church, and that the blood
of Christ has redeemed me, together with the whole race of Adam."

Yet it should be noted toward the end of Helena's life, as with so many
others, the encroachment of fragments of an earlier religious experience
are seen. Increasingly in her writings she used words like the Holy Cause,
with their ecclesiastical flavor, phrases reminiscent of the childhood
religion
which she had rebelled against all of her life. She was humbling her pride
to join the host of other rebel spirits who creep back to the sanctity of
the Holy Church. She even admitted when in Paris she had in secrecy
slipped
off to the Russian Cathedral. In secrecy was correct, because even though
in her heart toward the end her life her confidence in her Mahatmas and
the occult may have decrease or fallen away, in public her concern was to
insure the realty of her Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi and all the
hierarchy
for her followers. She apologized for the mistakes and misrepresentations
in her works but not for the Masters who had dictated her books. The
faults
of the books she laid on others.

After 1869 both the Fadeyev and Witte families had dwindled. Adey Fadeyev
had died at 81. The families pooled their assets and moved to Odessa where
Helena and Metrovitch joined them. It was tough going for everyone, but
Helena, in her flighty manner, tried starting several small businesses,
but in the perilous times they all failed. Metrovitch still trying to make
a comeback got an engagement with the Italian opera of Cairo, so he and
Helena sailed for Egypt.

It was during their voyage that Metrovitch lost his life in an explosion
of gunpowder and fireworks which the ship was carrying. Helena was one of
seventeen passengers out of 400 which survived. She latter said Metrovitch
died trying to save her life, although there are other versions of his
death
which are not connected with the explosion at all. Anyway Helena thought
that Metrovitch would want her to go on. She went to Alexandria with help
of the Greek government funds. It is thought she buried Metrovitch's
remains
there, and then proceeded to Cairo when she became a medium by teaming up
with another woman. The relationship in Cairo lasted for some time, then
both went back to Odessa. However, Russia did not provide the stimulation
which Helena longed for, and she tired of quarreling with her aunts whom
she said did not understand her. She saw other people and then went to
Paris.
It was there she heard of the enthusiasm for Spiritualism that was
spreading
in the United States. She almost immediately sailed, saying that it was
"my mysterious Hindu" that ordered her "to embark for North
America, which I did without protesting."

She did not travel first class though. On the dock at Le Havre she by
chance
met a German peasant and her children who had been sold bogus tickets.
Helena
gave the woman and children her deluxe passage and traveled herself in
steerage
because that was all she could then afford. She, like millions of other
poor emigrants, and rebellious aristocrats traveled to America, the land
of opportunity and hope. It was her second chance.

As with thousands of other immigrants Helena's second chance did not come
easy, but she was determined to obtain it. It was July, 1873 when she
reached
New York. As did other single women, she first lodged in a home for woman
that was a tenement house that had be made into a cooperative by the 65
occupants. The landlord introduced Helena to the owners of a
shirt-and-collar
factory where she tried selling elaborate designs to the owners. The
designs
were good but she was bad at selling, so it was Odessa all over again.

HPB was penniless but said that she had wrote home to her relatives for
money and expected to receive it from the Russian Council at anytime. This
is how she survived in the home. She managed to divide the home into two
groups, those not liking her and those that did. She entertained the
latter
group with stories of her life and by holding seances on Sunday nights.
This seemed to work until a newspaper took a dislike to her and accused
her of using hashish and opium.

Soon after this her father died and she received $500 of her modest
inheritance
which went fast. She moved into a smart hotel and began to live Bohemian
again in a cooperate flat with three journalists, two men and another
woman.
Then a new phenomenon appeared. Ordinary photographs left in a wooden box
overnight were found in the morning to be tinted with water colors by
spirits.
Although impressive, the others occupants became skeptical of HPB's
powers.
Then one night they watched the Madame leave her room in night clothes,
carrying paint and brushes to assist the spirits.

Following this HPB worked whenever she could, one job was in a sweatshop
making artificial flowers, and accepting charity from whomever gave it.
This continued until June, 1874 when she met Clementine Jerebko and her
husband who has just arrived from Caucasus. She had known them both in
Russia.
The Jerebkos had just bought farmland on Long Island and HPB agreed to
join
in the adventure by buying in at $1,000. By the end of the first month all
parties knew it was a disastrous decision. Clementine agreed to return
Helena's
money after the farm been sold by auction, but three days later she and
her husband disappeared. Helena tried pursuing them by hiring a creditable
law firm which took the case to court.

The next important event in her life occurred ten days after Henry
Steele
Olcott's first article on the Eddy seances appeared in New York,
on October 14, 1874, when she introduced herself to Olcott at the remote
Chittenden, Vermont farm. Immediately she claimed to be a spiritualist who
had spend fifteen years in the cult, but it soon became apparent that she
had come to see Olcott.

During the next ten days Helena exhibited her techniques. Her seances
accompanied
those of the Eddy Brothers. Although Olcott was not a Spiritualist, he had
a keen interest in the phenomena. Each night the seance began at ten
minutes
to seven. The procession of apparitions began drifting in and out of the
Eddy cabinet on the schedule of every one to five minutes. The appearances
of Honto and the Indians were slightly dim compared to Madame Blavatsky's
peopled apparitions. "Hassan Aga," the wealthy merchant wearing
a black Astarkhan cap and tasseled hood who said three times he had a
secret
to revel, but never did; "Safer Ali Bak," the man that guarded
Helena for Nicephore Blavatsky in Erivan,
now appearing as a Kurd warrior carrying a feathered spear; a Circassian
noukar who bowed, smiled and said, "Tchock yachtchi (all
right); a giant muscular black man in white-and-gold-horned headdress, a
conjurer who she had met in Africa. Also, there were less exotic phantoms
such as an old woman in a babushka, whom Helena said was Vera's nurse; and
the portly man in a black evening suit and frilled white shirt, around
whose
neck hung a Greek cross of St. Anne suspended by a red moiré ribbon
with two black stripes.

"Are you my father?" she asked, confessing later that she was
trembling.

The apparition approached her and stopped, "Djadja," he
answered reproachfully.

HPB knew that Olcott was enthused with her performance, although his
articles
about her would not be published for several weeks, she decided much could
be achieved in the meantime. She with another medium rushed back to New
York. When Olcott mentioned putting his collection of articles that
appeared
in the Graphic into a book she volunteered to translate them into
Russian for the Psychisen Studien or some other Russian journal.
Olcott was thrilled with the idea.

She did like Olcott, but still considered him childish and gullible. She
knew, even though she had warned him that William Eddy's spooks were not
necessarily proof of spirit entities, that Olcott was "in love with
the spirits," as she put it. Nevertheless, they continued working
together.
HPB had feelings for Olcott, but they were not mutually shared at first.
Olcott considered her androgynous. He just did not see her as an
attractive
sexual person, even though she was in her earthly, sensual manner.

It was at this time that she engaged in a confrontation with a New York
neuropathologist, Dr. George Beard, who claimed in the Daily Graphic
that the Eddy brothers were frauds and that Colonel Olcott had been
blinded
by a handful of bad magicians' tricks. HPB had two reasons to be upset by
the article. First, her first real success in Spiritualism might be
thwarted;
and secondly, the article questioned Olcott's integrity as a serious
investigator.
If this went unchallenged it would dash any hopes of selling any
translations
of his articles. This episode became a fight between Beard and Helena, but
took an unexpected turn when she was recognized by both the Spiritual
Scientist and Daily Graphic. The editor of the former said
he
would publish all she could write. In an interview with the Graphic
she gained so much publicity that Helena Blavatsky was known throughout
the New York area.

But, as usual, her troubles were not over. She had tried to sell the
Russian
translation of Olcott's articles through Andrew Jackson Davis who admired
her as a medium, a friend of Alexander Aksakov who could get the articles
in the Psychisen Studien. In his reply to Davis, Aksakov said
that
he had heard of Madame Blavatsky, and she was a powerful medium, but her
communications show moral flows. Toward Davis Helena appeared casual, and
Davis thought his friend didn't know her as well as he did. However,
Helena
suspected Aksakov had heard rumors and hastily sent a letter to him
pleading
with him not to exposed everything to Davis. It is later noted that
Alsakov
did receive some of the translations, but he never printed them, nor did
any other publication.

Fearing that Aksakov revelations would come down upon her at any time
Helena
was in a desperate period. She still conducted seances, hoping for the
best.
She still needed financial support. The man, Henry Olcott, she wanted was
unavailable to her. Olcott was supporting an estranged wife and two
children,
also his law practice had been neglected during his Spiritualism
investigations.
Michael Betanelly was available and wanted to marry her to look after her,
he said he would expect no martial privileges of her. Betanelly was friend
to both Helena and Olcott. It was Betanelly who had written a letter to
Olcott, on Helena's behalf, verifying the Georgian that materialized
during
a seance at Chittenden. The letter was to served to disprove Dr. Beard's
accusations aimed at Olcott and also give Olcott more creditability. The
truth was that Betanelly knew nothing about Spiritualism when writing the
letter.

Helena and Betanelly were married on April 3, 1875. They had not told
Olcott,
when he heard of the marriage he called it "a freak of madness."
He later said he had ridiculed her for marrying a man so much younger than
herself and unequal to her mental capacity. However, Helena already had
her defense planned: she said, " their fates were linked by karma,
and the marriage was her punishment for `awful pride and combativeness.'"
She added that Betanelly had threaten suicide if she did not marry him.
Helena assured Olcott the marriage would not be consummated; although her
reason was not clear, it would seem she did so because of her interest in
Olcott. Olcott believed her. It may have been a non-sexual marriage, but
it is doubtful her entire relationship with Betanelly was non-physical.

Helena's main concern seemed to always lie in Olcott. To her he was always
essential to the Spiritualist movement. Later many would say she broke up
his marriage, even though the Spiritualists eventually denied it, it is
a fact they met shortly before his divorce. But it seemed they just
collaborated,
with HPB being dominate, at first, intimacy would come later. HPB dictated
Olcott's writings and where to send them. Before the establishment of the
Theosophical Society there was the founding of the Miracle Club. This was
a club where members were admitted to seances conducted by the club medium
David Dana, brother of Charles Dana editor of the New York Sun,
and
suggested by HPB. Members were forbidden to disclose their experiences or
the address of the meeting place. The club only lasted a few weeks because
David wanted to be paid, which HPB did not agree to.

The failure of the Miracle Club, however, sparked the founding of the
Theosophical
Society. The membership itself, with the enthusiasm of HPB, did not
disperse.
In striving to find a common purpose Olcott scribbled a hasty note asking,
"Would it not be a good thing to form a society for this kind of study?"
The phrase this kind of study referred to subjects such as the Egyptian
mysteries and the kabbalah which had
been
discussed in a lecture previously given to an informal group by J. H.
Felt,
an architect and engineer. He had said, "the dog-and hawk-headed figures
of Egyptian hieroglyphics were accurate pictures of elementals,
the spirits who convey messages at seances."

The infant society was eagerly formed in September1875. It was co-founded
by Olcott along with William Q. Judge. Its name was furnished by Charles
Sotheran who was of independent means, a high Mason, a Rosicrucian, and
a student of the kabbalah. Sotheran thought the name of the Miracle Club
was too cheap; he considered Egyptological Society, too limited; looking
through a dictionary, he found the word theosophy, a word that was
unanimously agreed on at the next meeting because it seemed to express
esoteric
truth as well as covering the aspects of occult scientific research, both
of which were goals of the Society. Because of Olcott's love for red tape
and Helena's ritualism the Society included all of the pomp originally
planned
for the Miracle Club. There was the policy of secrecy, each member wrote
F.T.S (Fellow, Theosophical Society) after their name, and recognized each
other by secret signs, most of which were borrowed from Egyptian occultism
and the Grand Lodge of Cairo.

After its establishment the Theosophical Society expounded the esoteric
tradition of Buddhism aiming to form an universal brotherhood of man,
studying
and making known the ancient religions, philosophies and sciences, and
investigating
the laws of nature and divine powers latent in man. The direction of the
society was claimed to be directed by the secret Mahatmas
or Masters of Wisdom.

After reading the evidence of the letters supposedly written from these
Mahatmas many concluded that they were written by friends of HPB, or by
HPB herself. The letters conveyed her ideas. These conclusions were drawn
after earnest men and women lavished an aggregate of several lifetimes of
study and research on the Mahatmas letters. Several books and monographs,
pro and con, were written. Who Wrote the Mahatmas Letters, a book
by the Hare brothers, one a disillusion Theosophist, was a well researched
work.

Although there is not any certain evidence of these Mahatmas or Masters
of Wisdom, Helena's first book Isis Unveiled, 1877, outlined the
basic precepts and the secret knowledge which they protected. In the
book's
preface HPB inserted `a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic
philosophy, the ancient universal wisdom." The success of the book
was greater than that of the society, which by 1878 almost collapsed.

In July 1878 Helena P. Blavatsky became the first Russian woman to acquire
United States citizenship. Some say she did so not to have the English in
India think she was a Russian spy. She and Olcott went to India in
December
of that year in order to revive the society's study of Hindu and Buddha
religions.

It was in India that HPB and the society gained much support. Newly
acquired
supporters included Sinnett, the statesman Allen O. Hume, and various
high-caste
Indians and English officials. At this time HPB aided Sinnett and Hume in
corresponding with the Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya. From this the first
suspicions of the Masters occurred, when their handwriting closely
resembled
that of HPB. However, nothing was every proven conclusively.

In 1882 the headquarters of the society was moved to an estate in Adyar,
near Madras. There HPB had a shrine room constructed for the Mahatmas
where
they could directly manifest their communications. A former colleague of
HPB, Emma Cutting Coulomb and her husband managed the household. They were
later discharged for dishonest practices.

In 1884 HPB and Olcott toured Europe while in the United State the
Coulomb's
published letters which they claimed to be written by HPB containing
instructions
for the Masters' manifestations and for the operation of the shrine
through
secret black panels. Apparently, the panels were constructed by Coulomb
during HPB's absent to destroy her reputation. During December 1884,
Richard
Hodgson of the Psychical Research Society (PRS) in London went to Adyar
to investigate the activity there. In the following spring he released a
scathing report alleging fraud and trickery by HPB and her associates. To
HPB and the Theosophical Society the report was controversial for over one
hundred years. It put a tarnish upon the name of HPB and the Society. In
1986 the PRS published an article in its Journal calling the
report
prejudiced, saying that Hodgson had ignored all evidence favorable to HPB,
and, that an apology was due.

Because of the controversy, Olcott sent HPB to Europe in 1885, where she
toured different countries finally settling in Germany due to
deteriorating
health. By then the French-born Swedish Countess Constance Wachrmeister
had moved in with HPB and helped her with her work, especially her second
book, The Secret Doctrine (1888), which is said to be her greatest
work.

The Secret Doctrine outlined a scheme of evolution relating to the
universe (cosmogenesis) and humankind (anthropogenesis), and is based on
three premises: (1) Ultimate Reality, as an omnipresent, transcendent
principle
beyond the reach of thought; (2) the universality law of cycles throughout
nature; and (3) the identity of all souls with the Universal Oversoul and
their journey through many degrees of intelligence by means if
reincarnation,
in accordance with "Cyclic and Karmic
law."

The Secret Doctrine is claimed to have been largely based on the
archaic manuscript of The Book of Dyzan, which HPB interpreted.
She
claimed the Mahatmas communicated parts of The Secret Doctrine to
her, claiming they impressed thoughts in her mind which she put to paper.
Critics say she copied her thoughts from various existing works.

During 1889 HPB finished two more books: The Key to Theosophy an
introduction to theosophical thought and philosophy; and, The Voice of
the Silence, a mystical and poetic work on the path of
enlightenment.

The work of the Theosophical Society was continued by activist Annie Wood
Besant, a reviewer of The Secret Doctrine and a convert to
Theosophy.
Besant's home in London became the headquarters of the Society. She
actively
supported progressive causes, bringing another generation of liberal
intellectuals
into the society, and became president following Olcott's death in 1907.

In all respects it is not difficult to believe that HPB possessed genuine
occult inspiration and powers for she exerted enormous influence over some
of the most talented individuals of her time. Touched by her were persons
like Horace Greeley, the Honorable John L. O'Sullivan, ex-Ambassador to
Portugal; P. B. Randolph, leading American Rosicrucian; Prince
Wittgenstein.
Also among those influenced by her are W.
B. Yeats, the Irish poet, and "AE" (George W. Russell). She
was influential in the development of the Hermetic
Order
of the Golden Dawn
by promoting the translations of Hindu scriptures and philosophical works.

HPB died in her home on May 8, 1891. She became unable to walk and
suffered
from various diseases. She was cremated with a third of her ashes
remaining
in Europe, and a third going to America and India each. Theosophists
commemorate
her death on May 8, called White Lotus Day.

It would not be a mere understatement to say Madame's Blavatsky's life was
different, because it was very different. There seems to be no single
reason
for this difference; one cannot say it was just her childhood, her
adolescence,
her adult life; the lost of her son, or the child she dearly loved; or her
love of occult science. One is forced to say that is was several or all
of these factors which made her different and who she was. Over a hundred
years following her death people are still fascinated by the name of
Madame
Helena Blavatsky.

One presumes this fascination is generated by the unique pursuit of Madame
Blavatsky's life itself. One never could say she allowed life to pass her
by; if anything, she propelled life. Divine revelations appealed to her
for she was mystical by nature. Yori resembled her invisible playmate in
early childhood. She did not share Christian visions because of her
violent
rebellion against the church. A heaven containing thousands of angelic
creatures
was not for her. She was too earthy. Her life was with people. Her saints
were the Mahatmas or Masters of Wisdom, modeled on Buddhist and Christian
monks, who resided in the inaccessible portion of the earth. They were the
"old souls" who had completed their rounds of incarnations on
earth, but frequently returned to help members of humankind who deserved
it: the Theosophists.

Even though many have been and are skeptical of HPB, and it must be said
they have cause to be, it cannot be believed she deliberately intended to
hurt people. Although some of her ways were suspicious, it is doubtful
that
she intentionally exploited people with her glimpses of the truth. This
seems contradictory to the nature of a woman who gave her deluxe
accommodations
to a peasant family and came to America in steerage. She seemed to possess
a strange and uncanny power, even in youth, to hurl defiance in the face
of polite society, and then force it to take her seriously. Perhaps this
is the charm and complexity of Madame Blavatsky which even today compels
some individuals to try and follow her. A.G.H.